Josseline's shrine

     I visited the shrine for Josseline Hernandez during a hike along the migrant trails on October 8.  Josseline was a 14-year-old girl from El Salvador who was traveling with her 10-year-old brother.  They were going to Los Angeles to reunite with their mother.  After crossing Guatemala and the entire length of Mexico, they hiked 20 miles in the desert of southern Arizona. 

     Josseline became ill and they were still 20 miles from the pick-up spot.  The “coyote” (guide) left her behind because he had to get the group there on time to meet their ride.  Her brother didn’t want to leave but she told him “You have to keep going and get to Mom.”  Josseline died in the cold of winter in the desert on February 20, 2008.

     Focusing my attention on the task of taking photos allowed me to ignore any feelings about what had happened there.  I pulled out the plants that were obstructing the view of the cross so that I could get a clearer picture.  Then I started removing a few of the plants that had grown up behind the cross and I remembered watching Isabel cleaning the grave of her brother Reyes for the Day of the Dead in El Salvador.  It felt as if I was doing something for Josseline but it was more about soothing my own emotions.

     I took the photos and put the camera back in my pack.  That’s when it hit me and I started to sob.  Sonia, Josseline’s mother, wrote a poem that is inscribed at the base of the cross: “When you feel that the road has turned hard and difficult don’t give up in defeat.  Continue forward and seek God’s help.  We’ll carry you always in our hearts.”

     Josseline died alongside a dry streambed in a small canyon.  As we were hiking up the hill, I looked back and was struck by the beauty of the scenery.  The contrasting emotions of the sorrow for her death and the peace from that view are still with me.

     The sorrow also alternates with anger about the policies that killed Josseline.  Sonia was unable to find work in El Salvador and she went to Los Angeles to earn money to send back for Josseline and her brother.  She had worked for years in L.A. and finally saved up enough money to bring her children there.  Her dream turned to tragedy when Josseline became the victim of a militarized border created by successive administrations in the U.S.

     Bill Clinton began the policy that would lead to the death of Josseline and thousands of other unauthorized immigrants.  He pushed the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) through congress in 1993 and that destroyed the livelihood of more than two million small farmers in Mexico. 

     His administration then started building border walls and placing more Border Patrol agents to block the flow of migrants through Tijuana-San Diego; Nogales, Sonora–Nogales, Arizona; and Ciudad Juarez–El Paso.  This policy of “deterrence” funneled migrants away from the urban areas and into more remote and hazardous terrain.  Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, this militarization was escalated by George Bush and Barack Obama with the justification of “securing the border.”

     Not a single terrorist has been caught crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S.  Yet, the government continues to “deter” people that are seeking work, or to be reunited with their families, by pushing them into the deadliest terrain along the border.  That’s a political objective which is pursued through the use of armed force and causes large numbers of civilian casualties – including 14-year-old girls from El Salvador. 

    Photo of Josseline’s shrine:

Stop the deportation of Sandra Lopez

     Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 20-year-old Sandra Lopez to Nogales, Sonora on March 9.  She was brought to the U.S. when she was just two weeks old and she doesn’t know anyone in Mexico.  Sandra spent five days on the streets of Nogales and then ran for her life up through the lanes of traffic at the border and crossed back into the U.S.  She was arrested and taken into federal custody, and applied for asylum.  She is now at risk of being deported again.

     I attended a press conference at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson on September 29 to call on the Obama administration to halt the detention and deportation of Sandra.  I was able to speak with her mother and father, and I told them I would spread the word about her case. 

     The No More Deaths organization launched a national campaign for Sandra on July 25.  More than 5,000 e-mails, faxes and phone calls have been made to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.  Please add your voice to the campaign by going to http://www.nomoredeaths.org/Updates-and-Announcements/stop-sandras-deportation.html to send a message.  

     Sandra graduated from high school in Tucson in 2009 and wanted to enroll in Pima Community College.  She was told that she would have to pay out-of-state tuition because she doesn’t have immigration documents.  Her family couldn’t afford that and she began working with her mother cleaning homes.

     She ran into a friend from high school in September 2010, and he asked her to mail a box for him and gave her $100.  Sandra had never sent anything from FedEx before and it cost $85 for the package.  She kept the remaining $15 and it turned out that the package contained marijuana. 

     Sandra plead guilty to “securing the proceeds of an offense” on February 8, 2011 and was placed on three years probation.  She was then transferred to ICE and placed in the Eloy Detention Center – a 1,500 bed facility owned and operated by the Corrections Corporation of America.

     She appeared before an immigration judge on March 9 and was told there was no possibility of relief for her case.  She became very distraught, started crying and signed a form that she did not understand which caused her to be deported to Nogales that night.

     “Strange men began to ask me to come with them,” wrote Sandra in her application for asylum.  “I had a little bit of money so I went to a hotel right by the border and got a room.  I saw men bringing girls a lot younger than me there and the girls looked really scared.  At night I could hear them scream.  I left the next morning.  I was really scared.  Several women met me outside and told me to come with them.  They told me they kept girls like me and gave them jobs.  I know they wanted me to be a sex worker for them.” 

     “I asked policemen for help but they would not help me.  They also tried to get me to go with them and I knew I would be raped.  I lived on the street for five days and nights - just running and hiding.  I was so scared I ran for my life up through the lanes of traffic back into the United States.”

     The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on August 18 that it would “execute a case-by-case review of all individuals in removal [deportation] proceedings to ensure that they constitute our highest priorities.”  DHS also stated, “It makes no sense to expend our enforcement resources on low-priority cases such as individuals who were brought to this country as young children and know no other home.”  Sandra’s case offers the Obama administration an opportunity to show that this is a change we can believe in.

    Photos of Sandra’s mother and father during the press conference: